Latest tech craze puts higher ed and online learning back in the spotlight

7:10 PM,
Oct. 29, 2013

Michael Horn, co-founder of Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, speaks in September during The Disruption of Higher Education conversation at the New York Times Schools For Tomorrow Conference at the TimesCenter. NEILSON BARNARD/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Written by

Cynthia Joyce
Clarion-Ledger correspondent

in late 2012, the co-founder of Udacity, one of three leading providers of massive open online courses (MOOCs), made a bold prediction in WIRED magazine: Within 50 years, he said, there would be only 10 institutions in the world providing higher education, the majority of it online.

More recently, at a New York Times "Schools for Tomorrow" conference, Michael Horn, a disruptive innovation champion and author of "Disrupting Class," offered a slightly more measured prediction.

"Of the 4,200 institutions of higher learning in this country, I think half of them will be bankrupt or merged ...